Garden
by Feral Phoenix
Summary: Ledah has always hated summer with a passion. Ein completely adores it. And living in Elendia, this can make Ledah's life pure hell. But maybe one of Ein's unusual new hobbies can make a difference in that. Oneshot, rated for safety, same universe as AVRC


Garden

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Riviera, but I do own this idea. Hehe, I heart oneshots. :D If you steal, I'll send my muses and Reiko after you… Besides, Rau-sama is letting me borrow the Providence, so you better watch out! XD This little fic takes place some time after the main events of AVRC, maybe a bit after JdC's main story arc. I'm not entirely sure myself, but… oh well! Enjoy:3

Warning: Fluffy yaoi ahead! Also, there are some spoilers for Jugement du Ciel, for those who haven't finished it. (That's your cue to read it… and REVIEW it too!)

Ledah blinked up at the sun as he closed the bakery door with a slight bow to the owners. It was a little bit past noon, and the summer light felt too bright for his sensitive eyes after half a day's worth of translating his ancient texts of Asgard into the common language so that Riviera's scholars would be able to understand them. Now that he had fresh bread for his and Ein's lunch, he just wanted to get back inside.

Barefoot and lacking the heavy pants he usually wore under the skirts of his robes though he was, Ledah couldn't help feeling unusually hot in Elendia's summer sun. Riviera's climate was much warmer than Asgard's, and even after so long, Ledah had still to get used to it. Besides, his right hip tended to ache worse than usual on very hot or humid days, which meant that the normal occasional twinges of pain he got while walking were much more common at the moment. Mentally shaking a fist at the weather, the Grim Angel sighed and turned towards home, where he at least would be able to apply some of the herbal oil Fia had charmed to relieve the pain of his arthritis symptoms. Which he would also need to get more of, he realized; less than a quarter of his current bottle was left, and that probably wouldn't last for the rest of the week. Determined not to let Ledah's condition affect their love life, Ein had incorporated the ritual of applying the oil by rubbing it into his lover's skin into their (already lengthy) foreplay routine, which meant that it tended to run out rather quickly. This was actually necessary—on Ledah's bad days, the lasting injury to his hip could sometimes make his and Ein's rough style of intercourse quite painful.

Ledah let out another long sigh as he turned the bend and headed towards the house, shifting the bag of bread in his arms. He'd always hated summer. It was too hot and sticky to do anything worthwhile, and in Asgard, the other children—the cruel children who had forced Ledah away from the schools he'd desperately wanted to return to—had always come out then, and _nowhere _could be considered safe. Now, summer meant lots of boredom and inactivity aside from sex with Ein. With his pale skin, Ledah ran the risk of sunburn if he stayed outside too long, and he couldn't even join Ein in most of his lover's activities now that the brunet had decided his favorite thing to do in summer was go swimming.

It wasn't as though Ledah _couldn't _swim. It was just that his broad black wings made swimming highly awkward, and he preferred not to make a fool of himself struggling through the water with sodden feathers. Swimming had always been difficult for him, and because he always had to stay near the surface, the sun's reflecting off the water made him burn faster and far worse than he usually did. Ledah hated swimming and almost everything to do with it passionately.

After lunch, all he really wanted to do was sleep—sleep until sundown, sleep until it was finally dark enough and cool enough for him to venture outside and do his work by moonlight and starlight.

Opening the door to his home, Ledah deposited the bag of bread on the table and looked around with a slight frown. "Ein? Where are you…? It's time to get the food ready."

"Just a minute!" Ein called. "I'm outside!"

Ledah groaned inwardly. Ein _always _had to be outside.

Well, there was nothing else for it. If Ein had to be retrieved, he had to be retrieved, and Ledah was the only one around to do it…

Heading back into the sun with a soft curse, Ledah walked around the perimeter of the house, looking around for any sign of his lover. It wasn't until he got around to the back that he finally found Ein—and he certainly didn't expect what he saw there.

"What are you doing…?"

Ein looked up at Ledah and flashed him a wide grin. The brunet was kneeling by a fresh pile of upturned dirt in the back of the house, with scattered woodchips in the soil around him. There was a spade and a pair of pruners on his right side, and a few pots of new flowers on his left. Various plants were already embedded in the ground all around him, where he'd been working on introducing them for the past few weeks. Against the side of the house itself lay a mister bottle of water, as well as a bucket full of suds. A dirty pair of gloves sat before them; Ein was up to his elbows in grime and looking as though he was having the time of his life.

"I'll be done here in a few days," he announced proudly. "I've been asking around to see what the best things to put in a place like this are, and I really think that this is going to look great after a little work! Next year I want to get some more things in, like birds of paradise and maybe even some vegetables…"

Ledah stared wonderingly at Ein as he chattered animatedly about his little plot of carefully upturned earth. It was rare that the young angel showed this much enthusiasm about things other than helping others and performing fieldwork for his Elendian allies.

Smoothing the skirts of his robes, Ledah knelt down in the grass beside Ein and pointed to a cluster of delicate-looking white and blue flowers that the brunet had planted a while ago. "What are these?"

"In Elendia they call flowers like these 'fairy's breath'," Ein explained, smiling and leaning towards Ledah to speak more conspiratorially. "I've never seen anything like them in Asgard, but Fia told me that they grow all over the place here in Riviera. They look so fragile, and yet they're one of the hardiest kinds of flowers here because their roots are very strong. There are purple ones too, but I couldn't get any of the seeds of those. Coco says that you can make jelly out of the petals after they've been pollinated, and Cierra told me that she's actually been using them for a while in some of the kinds of lubricants she's made for us."

"You don't say," Ledah commented with a wry smile.

"I've also got some kinds of poppies and rainbow paintbrushes ready here," Ein continued, gesturing. "And I'm trying to get bluebells—I know how much you've always liked those. Maybe I'll get some hedges put in soon—they'll protect the more delicate flowers from getting _too _much sun." He frowned slightly, looking Ledah up and down. "Speaking of which… we'd better get you inside, or you'll start to run a sunburn. You've been running around doing errands all morning, and I don't want you to get burned and then get sick. Cierra says she has aloe, but still, I don't want you to be any more miserable. I know how much you hate summer."

Ledah smiled gratefully. "I have lunch for you, anyway," he replied.

Pulling the bucket of soapsuds over, Ein stuck his dirty arms into the water, using a cloth hung over the side to scrub them clean and dry. "We'd better hurry up, then. Phew, all this garden working has really made me hungry. I can always come back out here after lunch, so that I can finish up and rest a little before dark. That way I can keep you company." He started to straighten up, but as an afterthought, picked up the pruning shears and very carefully clipped a stalk of tiny flowers off of one of the fairy's breath sprigs that hadn't been planted yet. Gently pulling Ledah to his feet, Ein smiled and slipped the stalk behind Ledah's ear, arranging the little flowers themselves in the blonde seraph's hair.

"Let's go, now, Ledah-my-love," he murmured, kissing the older angel's fair cheek.

In response, Ledah flushed bright pink, slipped his hand into Ein's, and nuzzled close to him as they walked into the softer half-darkness of the house to unload and prepare a lunch that would sustain the busy gardener through the rest of the afternoon.

-owari :D-


End file.
